Judges: A Warning for All of Us - Judges 1-2

Copyright April 22, 2018 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

This morning we begin a series in the book of Judges. You find Judges right after the book of Joshua, book 7 in the Old Testament. It records things that happened in Israel from the time of the death of Joshua to the first King of Israel, Saul.

This is a dark book. There are going to be weeks when you read ahead in the story and you will ask, “What are we supposed to get out of this?” The book starts out at PG (violence, adult activities, sensuality, language and other elements) and ends as an “R-rated” book (intense, graphic and persistent violence or graphic sexuality that parents may not want their children to see.) Near the end of the book of Judges there are some accounts that will make you sick.

So why do we turn to Judges? There are three reasons. First, we believe the words of Paul that “ALL Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16) and second, the book of Judges tells us about some of the most noteworthy people in the Bible: Gideon, Deborah, and Samson. Third, this book illustrates what happens when we drift from God. We have titled the series “Truth Decay.” We hope the reason will become evident in our study.

One author writes,

Judges vividly demonstrates to us the consequences of spiritual compromise and disobedience to God that occur when the world succeeds in squeezing believers into its mold. No other part of Scripture so emphatically declares that spiritual disaster occurs when a group of people draws back from a wholehearted commitment to the Lord Jesus.[i]

The beginning of the book of Judges talks about the idolatry of the other nations and wars with those nations. It ends talking about the idolatry IN Israel and the wars going on inside the nation. In other words, the book shows us the gradual secularization or paganizing of Israel.

Our desire is to learn from this book, so we don't repeat the mistakes we read here. Please keep in mind when you read the book of Judges and when you read most of the narrative passages in the Bible: The Bible Accurately Reports what happened but that is not necessarily a prescription for what we should do. Just because the Bible tells us something happened, it doesn't mean what happened pleased God.

We can apply that principle to one of the difficult questions raised often when reading the Old Testament . . . What kind of a God would command all this killing? Much of the conflict in the Bible is the result of the sinfulness of men. When God gives us freedom, we also have freedom to hurt each other. We see that in our own day. Is God responsible for the terrorism, murder and abuse we see around us? No. Sinful people are responsible. Some of the violence in this book is because of the sinful choices of people. I believe it also made God sick.

The books of Joshua and Judges are difficult because God commands Israel to go into the land and kill all the people. We find that offensive much like we find the ethnic cleansing (wiping out of huge groups of people) that has taken place in World War II and Adolf Hitler, and recently in Syria. However, these are not the same things.

God told Israel to destroy the Canaanites as His agents of judgment. Their sin had reached a point where they had to be stopped. They worshipped idols, they sacrificed their children, and their immorality was animal-like. These people were like cancer that needed to be addressed and God called Israel to address this. With any cancer, you have to completely destroy it or it will return. One of the sad stories of Judges is Israel’s failure to do what God commanded them to do.

One of the reasons we find these accounts offensive is because we find the idea of Judgment offensive. We want God to be like a lenient grandparent that lets you do anything you want. God is not that Grandparents. He is Holy. He does not compromise with evil. He will judge wickedness. I hope this helps you to understand some of the violence. When you are offended by it understand that this is the consequence of bad choices in life.

We are going to do a “flyover” the first two chapters this morning. We are “setting the stage” for the accounts of the individuals who were known as the judges of Israel. There are some lessons in these first two chapters.

Little Things Lead to Big Things

The book starts when Joshua has died. The Israelites are continuing the conquest of the land God has promised to them. They ask God which tribe should go first in the conquest of the land. The clear instruction is “Judah.” It was the largest tribe. The promise is sure: “I will give you victory over their land.”

Judah asks their brother tribe, Simeon (one of the smallest tribes) for their help in the battle. They promise they will return the favor. Don’t miss what just happened. Judah was told to conquer the land and they decided to bring another tribe with them. The implication is: the promise of God is not sufficient. They apparently thought they would need more help. It showed a lack of faith.

It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is. All major failures start with little compromises; times when we try “improve” the plan of God.

This is what happened,

When the men of Judah attacked, the Lord gave them victory ovr the Canaanites and Perizzites, and they killed 10,000 enemy warriors at the town of Bezek. 5While at Bezek they encountered King Adoni-bezek and fought against him, and the Canaanites and Perizzites were defeated. 6Adoni-bezek escaped, but the Israelites soon captured him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

7Adoni-bezek said, “I once had seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off, eating scraps from under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them.” They took him to Jerusalem, and he died there.(1:4-7)

Once again, do you see what happened? Judah was told to destroy the Canaanites but instead, they spared the King. They cut off his thumbs and big toes to make it impossible for him to handle a bow or sword again. God did not tell them to mutilate the King! Judah appears to be adopting the barbaric practice of the Canaanites!

What looked like victory should have been a warning of spiritual compromise that would lead to much deeper trouble.1 Peter gives us this warning,

13So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16)

God’s people are to follow God in God’s way. He does not put obedience, morality, ethics, or devotion up for a vote. That little lie, the harmless flirting, the money you borrowed from work, that juicy piece of gossip you share, the corners cut in a project, all of these things are the first signs of cancer. They are deadly! If they are not addressed immediately, they will lead to bigger problems.

Partial Obedience is No Obedience

In the rest of chapter 1 starting in verse 19 there is a recurring refrain:

19The Lord was with the people of Judah, and they took possession of the hill country. But they failed to drive out the people living in the plains, who had iron chariots

What follows are similar statements regarding Benjamin (21); Manasseh (27); Ephraim (29); Zebulun (30); Asher (31); Naphtali (33); Dan (34). In each case these tribes failed to drive out the current inhabitants completely. They fought until they met real still resistance and then abandoned the fight. Some of the tribes made treaties with the people of the land!

Israel had the promise and the power of God. Unfortunately, instead of seeking God and trusting His promise, they chose to obey only partially. Sadly, partial obedience is more the norm rather than the exception. God calls us to holiness and full obedience and we are enthusiastic about holiness until

We meet opposition

It becomes difficult

It requires we deny ourselves something

It becomes unpopular

Or we’d rather do something else

You cannot compromise on obedience without an erosion of faith and character. When you only do part of your homework, you haven’t really done your homework. When you are faithful to your spouse “most of the time” you are not a faithful spouse! When you only put part of the engine back together in the car you have not repaired the car. When you don’t finish a construction project you haven’t really built anything . . . you have only partially built something. When we do not obey the Lord fully, we aren’t really obeying Him at all! We are still only doing what WE want to do! We aren’t obeying Him . . . we are obeying our desires.

We live in a time of what is called syncretistic faith. It means people blend different parts of a number of different belief systems. Today you may hear someone say they are a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist. What they mean is they have taken the parts they like from all of these belief systems and in essence have created their own religion! When people today describe themselves as “spiritual” this is almost always what they are saying.

In truth, they are neither Christian, Muslim or Buddhist! They have perverted all of these religious belief systems! You cannot be all of these things because they contradict each other! We can’t be lost in sin and have sin only be a state of mind. Jesus can’t be God in the flesh and not God but only a man!

When we try to make faith more palatable to the people around us by compromising our beliefs (like sin, Hell, Judgment, and Jesus as the only way to salvation), we actually renouncing our faith! When you deny basic Christian truth you are no longer proclaiming the Christian faith but a cheap and offensive perversion of it! Truth has been negotiated for falsehood.

Faith Must Be New Every Generation or it will Erode

In chapter 2 verse 6 we have what is the second introduction. It is similar to when we read the first two chapters of Genesis. Chapter 1 is general. Chapter 2 of Genesis is specific. It is that same way here in Judges. It starts once again with the death of Joshua. The first introduction showed the military failure of the nation of Israel. The second shows some of the impact of the failure of the heart. These are not sequential accounts, they are concurrent. They are telling the same story with a different emphasis.

In verses 6-10 we are told about the first generation of people in the Promised Land. These were all people who were born in the wilderness. They had seen some of God’s miracles and experienced His daily provision.

In chapter 2 verses 10-15.

10After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.

11The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal. 12They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. And they angered the Lord. 13They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. (Judges 2:10-13)

The new generation knew the mighty things God had done . . . it was just no longer precious to them or a priority. It was no longer a driving force in their life. It wasn’t a personal belief.

It is good and important to bring our children to church and send them to Sunday School and youth programs. HOWEVER, we must also encourage them to have a personal and vital faith in Christ. We do that by teaching them the truth and by SHOWING them the truth.

A UCLA Professor named Albert Mehrabian created the 7-38-55 rule. He says, only 7 percent of the meaning of a message is based on our words. 38 percent comes from the tone of voice and 55 percent from the speaker’s body language and face.”

We can tell our children about faith all we want but if we are not living out that faith our children may be religious, but they will not be in a relationship with Christ! Your grandchildren may disengage entirely!

Compromise in Israel brought discipline from the Lord and that is what we read next:

This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them. 15Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned. And the people were in great distress. (Judges 2:14-15)

This is a recurring cycle in the book of judges.

Israel sins, compromises, and falls into Idolatry

God gives them over to oppression by foreign people to wake them up

The People Cry for Help in their distress

God Raises Up a Judge (or leader) to help them overcome the oppression

Repeat . . . the cycle starts again

The Book of Judges provides a stack of case studies that show us this pattern. It serves as a warning to each of us that sin has consequences. And as we go further into the book we will see the terrifying reality that we can drift from the Lord and not realize how far we have drifted. Sometimes we may not realize it until it is too late.

Think of laying on a raft on the Mississippi River. You are enjoying the sunshine. You know there is a slight current in the water but that just makes the experience that much more enjoyable. You doze in and out. You aren’t paying much attention until you suddenly hear a loud noise. You awaken and survey your surroundings. You find that you have drifted all the way to Keokuk and you are squarely in the middle of the river with the dam approaching much too quickly. There is not much you can do other than hope someone sees you and comes to rescue you.

That same thing happens when we put our faith on cruise control. Little compromises open the door to bigger compromises. You skip times in the Bible, you become sporadic in worship and prayer. You are too busy to serve the Lord because you have other important things to do. You begin redefining your faith to allow you to keep making compromises without feeling guilty. At times we even make it sound NOBLE. We say, “You have to put family first” or “The job has to come first.” But when we do this we are actually denying our faith! First place is supposed to be given to the Lord! You are developing a faith that is really just a cheap knock-off of the real thing.

We turn to the book of Judges hoping we will see in these stories of rebellion and decay a warning that hopefully will make us sit up and take notice. This study may not be pleasant, but if we pay attention, it might just save our lives, our families, and lead us on a path where our witness is strong and our lives become a vibrant testimony of the truth of what we profess to believe.

There are all kind of counterfeiters in the world. There are people who make counterfeit money and there are those who make imitation products. This is why you can buy a Rolex watch for $50.00 or a designer purse (which no man understands) for just a small fraction of the cost of the real thing. We call these items “knock-offs.” They are cheap and inferior copies of the real thing.

Judges asks us: Are you creating a knock-off faith? Are you making compromises that lead you away from God? Are you justifying partial obedience? Are you guilty of creating God in YOUR image by “adjusting” His commands to fit your desires?

If we don’t ask these questions now we will begin to drift away from the Lord. . . and it won’t matter how effectively you have convinced yourself that you are “OK with God.” You aren’t OK! We must take corrective action or we will or we too may drift so far that the real problem is no longer in the world in which we live . . . but right in our own heart!

[i] Inrig, Gary. Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay: Practical and Contemporary Lessons from the Book of Judges (Kindle Locations 155-156). Discovery House. Kindle Edition.